The Case that Stole Christmas
by alex.mobleyyahoo.com
Summary: Nancy and Ned finally broke up but right before Christmas. When Santas all around the state begin to go missing Nacy teams up with the Hardy boys but with Ned out of the picture will Frank finally reveal his feelings to Nancy? I don't own any of the characters from Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. Constructive criticism appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Bess

It was two weeks until Christmas and being the procrastinators we are, Nancy and I were heading to the mall to do our Christmas shopping. I was hoping that maybe the River Heights only shopping mall wouldn't be crowded, but apparently everyone had forgotten to do their early Christmas shopping. As Nancy parked the car in the extra lot, I thought about Ned, Nancy's boyfriend. Recently they had been fighting a lot and of course George (my cousin) heard all about that and how she was right or he shouldn't have said that. But somehow they just kept making up and not breaking up. I prayed that he of all people would not be here today. I didn't know if I could control Nancy after last nights fight. I can't remember the last time I saw Nancy so mad. And yet she still wouldn't dump him. I wished that the Hardy boys lived closer to River Heights. Even though they both denied it, Nancy and Frank (the eldest Hardy boy) were totally crushing on each other. Unlike Ned, Frank considered Nancy's comments and checked up on her by phone when she had a tough day. Ned well he was just the opposite of Frank.

As we headed to the mall, Nancy said, "Bess, do you think you know who will be here?"

"Nancy, you can say his name. It's not like Ned's a genie and will pop up when you call. And no I don't think he will be here. Wait, you didn't tell him where you would be did you?"

"I might have mentioned something before our fight last night.."

"Nancy! Didn't I ever tell you, Never let Ned know where and when you are going to be cause he's going to find you, apologize and then break your heart again! Remember last time?" I was referring to when they fought over whether Nancy could handle herself being a deceive or not. Ned was so furious, I was scared Nancy might have been in physical harms way. Then the next day, he shows up at her house with a crappy, wilted bouquet of roses, asking her to be his and of course she goes back to him.

As the entered the decked out mall, Christmas music blared over the speakers. This is what Nancy needs, I thought. If there was anything thing that could get Nancy's mind of Ned, it was Christmas... that or Frank Hardy, but I was fresh out of those. As we entered the food court I spotted George waving us to come over.

Nancy

Bess was just trying to help take my mind of Ned which worked for a minute but then "our song" blared over the speakers and I felt sadness and anger all at once. I remembered our date last night. I had been so excited hoping maybe Ned would do something special for me since it was close to Christmas and all. So I wore my favorite special occasion dress, a red sweetheart neckline strapless dress that reminded me of my mom. She passed away when I was a little girl so I enjoyed wearing things that reminded me of her. I slid on my super high heels and hopped in my car. Ned was taking me to our favorite Italian diner. When I got there he look angry about something but wouldn't tell me what. Once we were seated I asked, "Ned you look like someone stole your tv! What's wrong?" (Ned was religious about his tv time)

"Well you should know shouldn't you?" He angrily retorted.

"Ned, honey, what's wrong? I don't know."

He abruptly stood up and yelled "You've been cheating on me! And with that no good, low life slime Frank Hardy!" What was going on I thought. I didn't like Frank...or well I didn't like him enough to hurt my boyfriend. I mean sure we have several cases together and were married for at least two of them, but Ned didn't even know that. And he didn't know that the small engagement ring I wore was the fake one Frank gave to me on one of the missions. He was under the impression it was my moms.

"Ned," I tried to calmly say, "I'm not cheating on you! I love you with all of my heart!"

"Yeah right. How could you do this," he fumed. "After I told you I love you and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. After we looked at rings!"

Ned was beginning to scare me, me Nancy Drew who had been kidnapped and almost killed multiple times! There was a fire in his eyes that made me very uncomfortable.

"I can't even look at you Nancy!" He cried and stormed out of the restaurant. He left me with the bill and all of the restaurant staring. "Nancy!" Exclaimed Bess. "Earth to Nancy? Helloooo?"

"Oh sorry Bess." I said giving her a weak smile. I could tell she was concerned and wanted to make me feel better. I hadn't exactly told her what happened last night but I did tell her that it was not looking good for me and Ned right now. Right as we saw George I heard a familiar voice that I was in no mood to hear.


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own any of the Nancy Drew or Hardy boys characters

Chapter 2

George

I sat in the food court wishing to be any where but the mall. I can't stand any of this shopping stuff at all. But my best friend Nancy had a big fight with her stupid boyfriend, Ned last night. Bess and I can't stand the guy but somehow Nancy loves him. He always breaks her heart and yet they keep getting back together. I spotted Nancy and Bess and began to wave them over but then saw someone I knew would ruin Nancy's entire day...Ned Nickerson. He was yelling, "NANCY! NANCY, WAIT I LOVE YOU. When she turned around I could see embarrassment, anger, and confusion come over her face.

He continued, "I never meant anything I said last night. Please forgive me I'm sorry."

Nancy starred at him then said, "Ned, it hurts that you think I would cheat on you and I don't know where you got that idea but I told you I love you and I meant it."

"I know and I'm sorry. I was on your phone-"

"You were what!?" If there was something you didn't touch it was Nancy's phone.

"I'm sorry Nancy but I was checking football scores then I saw how much you and Frank message each other and talk and I got jealous. Please forgive me," he begged.

"I-I can't Ned. You didn't trust me and honestly I haven't been feeling close to you in a while," Nancy managed to say in between sobs. "Ned we are finished. Done! Forever!" Bess quickly walked Nancy away from the baffled Ned and over to where I was waiting for them.

Nancy

After yelling at Ned I felt relief but also pain. Ned and I had been together for a while and I thought we were going to be married. I had loved him with all my heart, but i couldn't stay with him any longer. "Hey George," I said with as much of a smile as I could.

"Hey Nancy. Are you okay? Do you want some hot chocolate or anything?" George's offered.

Nancy sighed thinking, I have the best friends a girl could want.

"No George but thanks. I think I actually want to go to the next level where the winter wonderland is and try to forget all that just happened. "

"Of course!" Bess and George replied and walked beside me to the escalator. As we stepped on I caught a glance of something suspicious. There was a guy dressed in all black lurking in a dark hallway. If I didn't know the Hardy's were on a secret case somewhere else, I would say it was Joe...

Joe Hardy

I watched the scene unravel before my eyes. Nancy had finally dumped him and now all I had to do was tell Frank and he could make his move.

Chapter 3

Nancy

I shook the thought of Joe and Frank being here and hurried up to the next level. It was entering Santa's workshop. The place was covered in fake snow, giant candy canes, Christmas trees, and Santa's workshop. "Ooooo" squealed Bess. "Let's go get a picture with Santa! Nancy you can ask Santa that Frank would be here to comfort you" she said with a teasing smirk. I blushed, "I don't like him! But I would like to get a picture of all of us with Santa." Bess began reapplying her lip gloss. "What are you doing Bess?" Asked George. "Well you never know what's under that beard and who knows it might just be a hot guy," she giggled. George and I rolled our eyes and headed towards the Santa station. We waited in line for an hour until it was time for our picture. As we neared Santa I suddenly wish I had put on lip gloss. Santa was about my age and resembled some one I knew, but who? He look super hot as Bess would say. He looked at me and our eyes met. My mouth dropped open. It was non other than... Frank Hardy! He smiled and winked at me but I could tell if I showed I knew him it would blow his cover. So I smiled for the photo then we walked some more. As we headed back towards the elevator I told Bess and George to head on down and I'd be there in a second. They looked confused but listened anyway.

I headed back towards the Santa area and then a dark hand reached out and grabbed me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok so sorry about all those errors I went back through the story and fixed all the ones I noticed. If there are more I'm so sorry and if you point them out I will fix them. Thank you so much to the guest who alerted me to my errors. I am not very good at mysteries that is why the mystery plot is so poor. I am trying to mainly focus on Nancy and Franks relationship with a bit of Bess and Joe. Anyway so sorry about the errors and thank you for reading my story!**

**Frank**

I couldn't believe it. Nancy was here in line to get a photo with me or well Santa but still. I scratched the uncomfortable white beard and said ho ho ho to little boy on my lap. Nancy looked beautiful. He long strawberry blonde hair was slightly curled to frame her petite face. By looking at her you would never knew she was a hard hitting deceive who had faced death more than once. I smiled to himself about their last meeting. We had to be married to solve a murder mystery. I still kept his gold wedding band on his keychain. That was the cause for his and Callie's breakup. I loved Callie but soon it grew to be more of a sibling love. I wondered if Nancy would recognize me or not. Even if she didn't I gave her the "I'm undercover signal" by smiling and winking at her. She got the message and didn't act surprised at all. Not even her two best friends realized whose lap they were on. Once they left I couldn't wait to tell Joe, my younger brother about his encounter and that I saw the lovely Bess. It was no secret that Joe and Bess liked each other. As my shift finished I went searching for my younger brother.

**Nancy**

I struggled against the dark figure that pulled me into the shadows of the hallway. I tried kicking and scratching my captor but everything failed. Suddenly I was placed on the ground facing my captor. He pulled of his mask, reveling a smiling familiar boyish face. It was Joe Hardy! I stared in shock for a moment then began laughing. "What are you doing here Joe? And why did your kidnap me?" I said between laughs.

Smiling he replied, "Frank and I are here on a case. And we want your help. You see and don't laugh when I tell you this cause it is more serious than it sounds. Recently many locally owned malls were bought out by a large company. The company began replacing the Santa's in the wonderland with actors from big shot places. But slowly the new Santa's began to disappear."

I began to laugh thinking maybe they were joking. I mean this case sounded juvenile. But Joe continued without the trace of a smile on his usually happy face.

"It was always after their second shift in the locker room. We found a rag covered with a sleeping gas. I think they left it on purpose for us... Anyway in the last mall the Santa disappeared, we found a note saying if a request wasn't met the Santa's were going to killed. These men, though they are actors who took other people's jobs and were not nice, trust me I met them, they have families. So we sent Frank in as a Santa. Today is his first shift so tomorrow evening he should be knocked out and taken to the headquarters."

"You're sending Frank in as bait?! Why him?!" I yelled blushing at my sudden outburst.

"He volunteered for it. He has a tracker placed on him and I'm following him wherever he goes. There are one or two other trained agents here to make sure no fatal harm comes to Frank. "

"Oh ok well if that's what Frank wants to do... So why do you need my help?"

"Well Frank was the one who asked for it so I guess you'd have to ask him. Oh and did I mention that Callie may or may not have dumped Frank?" Joe said with almost a smirk on his face.

I felt a bit annoyed by that so I replied, "No you didn't mention that. I'm assuming that you saw my breakup with Nick..." I was still feeling a bit hurt and confused by the breakup still but continued. "And did I mention that Bess now has a boyfriend? They are getting pretty serious." I said this a smirk even though it wasn't true, I wanted to see what he would do.

"S-she is" Joe stammered. "Oh well I um I guess I look forward to meeting him." Knowing Joe, he would have a major outbreak in front of Bess that would be very amusing and great payback for all the times he teased me and Frank.

"Well are you going to take me to Frank? I want to see him." I said

Joe quickly regained his composure and motioned for me to follow him. We walked to the locker room. I was hesitant to enter at first but Joe assured me it was fine. The only person on the locker room was Frank. He had his back turned when we entered. He was still wearing his red pants and hat but instead of the big jacket, he had a white fitted top that showed of his muscles. Slowly he turned around, reveling a big grin when he saw me.

"Frank!" I exclaimed running to hug him. Even though Joe didn't say anything, I knew he was smirking. "It so good to see you! Joe told me all about your case and that you wanted my help. Wow it been so long since we last saw each other!" I suddenly realized what I was doing and slowly regained my calm, collected composure.

Frank just smiled. "Nancy, you look amazing!" He said as a very faint blush crept up his face. "How's Nickerson doing?"

I looked the floor and quietly said, "We broke up. It probably should have happened a while ago but I just always thought that we'd be together forever." I said trying to hold in a sob. Even though Ned was sometimes violent, I knew he loved me and would never really hurt me that much.

Frank turned to his brother and asked him to leave for a second.

**Frank**

I thought she looked so beautiful just standing there hugging me. It had been a while since our last case together. If it was at all possible she had grown even more beautiful. Once she told me about Nickerson I turned to Joe and quietly asked him to give us a moment alone. Once he left, Nance clung to me and began to cry.

"I thought we would always be together. We had been friend for so long and dared for forever. I couldn't even imagine myself with another guy. True Ned had threatened me a few times but he would never hurt me! I know it " she managed to get out in between sobs.

"Wait what? He threatened you? He better not show his face around me or I'm going to show him that you never, NEVER threaten a girl." Especially I girl I liked, but I didn't say that out loud. To be honest it hurt what Nancy said about never being with another guy. I had always thought that maybe she liked me but I guess not. I could also tell that she was blinded by her love for Ned so much so she didn't care if he hurt her or not.

"Actually you should be careful around him too. You're the reason we broke up..."

I couldn't help but to feel a bit happy when she said that. First of all she was worried about my safety and secondly that meant Ned was jealous of me! Ha! I pulled Nancy closer to me and tried to comfort her.

"Nancy, would you like to help us on our case?" I said once her sobs began to cease. I knew that after a breakup, a case would be the only thing that could help her forget about that idiot.

She turned and looked at me with a small smile on her face that made my heart flip. "Yeah I would love too." We walked out of the locker room to a very surprising scene that had Nancy laughing in seconds.


End file.
